The Anchor of Hope

In our world, it seems that our experience, from the highest to the lowest, the richest to the poorest, fittest to challenged, is determined by the bottom line.

Everything has a cost and these costs must be constantly reduced to improve the bottom line. The budget is a constant concern. As governments cut services, there are greater demands on non-profit organizations. It is a bleak outlook, as bleak in my opinion, as any novel by Charles Dickens.

What hope is there?
And what is hope anyway?

Hope is one of those elusive “soft” concepts. The Bible tells us about a sure and certain hope. It also talks about the promise of hope. There is also the story of Job, who lost everything — family, farm and health. One of his friends brings these words.
“But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him…He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.”
One interpretation of the appeal to God is understanding that God is Truth. The appeal to truth can overturn all injustice. It may need constant repeating; another parable talks of an unsympathetic judge being repeatedly appealed to for justice and applying it for the sake of peace!
Hope can be seen as a call to arms.
A fight so that injustice will just shut up!
It was in the face of injustice that Jesus Christ was crucified, but the resurrection brought hope of a better world.

As Hebrews 6:19 states: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

Let’s anchor to this truth of hope as we strive to be “The Hand of God in the Heart of the City.”

Amen!

Colin
Director of Support Services